1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data input device (human input device). More particularly, this invention relates to a data input device for allowing the force applied on a force sensor to be entered therein as polar coordinate data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the input devices such as the pointing devices in the note-type personal computers and the joy sticks in the television games, force sensors adapted to operate in four directions or numerous directions are used. These force sensors measure the force applied on their sensor parts by utilizing a change in the electrostatic capacity or a change in the resistance wire and output this force as converted into an electric signal. In this case, the output signals from these force sensors are generally obtained as rectangular coordinate data, namely the components in the XY directions.
In the case of a game device, for example, the force applied on the force sensor is input to the game device as rectangular coordinate data and the character on the game produces a motion equivalent in quantity to the input data on the XY plane (for example, moves in an amount designated by the input XY component from the existing position). On the menu selecting screen, for example, the items and the menus allocated to the region belonging to the rectangular coordinate data input from the force sensor are offered for selection.
The data input device that, as contemplated by this invention, inputs the force applied on the force sensor as polar coordinate data, namely r value (the magnitude of force) and θ value (the direction of force), however, has never been known.
This invention, therefore, is aimed at providing a data input device that is operated by a novel method of inputting the force applied on a force sensor as polar coordinate data and subjecting the data to input processing which utilizes the r value and the θ value.